CASE official blames housing for depletion of arable lands

BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Senior staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, August 18, 2011

VICE-PRESIDENT of Academic Programmes at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) Major Johnathan Lamey views housing developments as the greatest threat to Jamaica's food security, next to deforestation.

Speaking at this week's Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper's headquarters in Kingston, Lamey said the rate of removal or conversion of arable lands into housing development is very alarming. "The only thing that goes close is deforestation in terms of the rate," he told editors and reporters.

Lamey said the parish of St Andrew, which has seen several new housing developments over the past few years, was a prime example of the competition between food and housing. He further noted that the tragedy was that arable lands were being used for housing, further tilting the scales towards a possible food security crisis.

"One of the most productive places in the world is the Liguanea Plains on which Kingston is built. Some years ago two great world leaders visited Jamaica, one was Fidel Castro and he wanted to know why was it we put houses where agriculture should be and vice versa," Lamey said.

He said the condition has been allowed to mushroom because "we have not adequately framed the policy with the laws that follow and the enforcement mechanism. There has to be political will for the government to frame the correct policies (town planning), strengthen the laws and have enforcement. For example, the mayor of Kingston is a no non-sense man when it comes on to building without permits, somebody stands up for it, but there are people who go against it," Lamey said.

He, said, however, that all was not lost despite the fact that much has gone wrong from the outset.

"I am not sure we can undo the things we have done already. Luckily, technology can help to a certain point to mitigate the circumstances. We have enough arable land and we can manipulate technology such as greenhouse technology and hydroponics to produce so much more," Lamey said, adding that Jamaica's soils are fairly well balanced in nutrients and with proper management can turn out the required amount of crops.

In the meantime, he said water harvesting is something that needed to be looked at. "Jamaica means land of wood and water and we need to do more water harvesting. We think, based on the estimates, that enough rain falls [so] if we hold on to it, it will not only prevent soil erosion but it will be able to sustain us in periods of drought," he added.

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CASE official blames housing for depletion of arable lands